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Posts Tagged: March 2017
Names in the News
Mark Bell will join UC ANR on May 1 as Vice Provost–Statewide Programs/Strategic Initiatives position. Bell is director of the UC Davis International Learning Center, a position he has held since 2007.
In this newly created position, Bell will provide leadership for a unified UC ANR program with strong statewide, campus and local presences. He will oversee the California Institute for Water Resources, Nutrition Policy Institute, the five UC ANR Strategic Initiatives and the nine UC ANR Statewide Programs. In addition, he will coordinate the Division's participation in the UC Presidential Initiatives, including the Global Food, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, UC-Mexico and Carbon Neutrality initiatives.
“Mark's record of success working with international extension systems in the combined roles of manager and field researcher makes him the ideal choice to serve as Vice Provost–Statewide Programs/Strategic Initiatives,” said VP Humiston in announcing his hiring.
“UC ANR can benefit from his skills and experience in leveraging research-extension linkages, adult education and information technology for agricultural development,” she said. Prior to joining UC Davis, Bell, who speaks Spanish, worked for nine years at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico and 11 years at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines.
At IRRI, he led development of the Rice Knowledge Bank – the world's major repository for rice-oriented training and extension materials aimed to help developing countries. He is currently leading development of Ag Extension, eAfghan Ag and e-China Apple at UC Davis International Learning Center.
As vice provost, he will serve on the UC ANR Program Council and collaborate closely with the Vice Provost of Cooperative Extension and the Director of the Research and Extension Center System. He will be located in the offices at 2801 Second Street in Davis.
Bell has a Ph.D. in soil science and bachelor's degree in agricultural sciences from the University of Queensland in Australia and a master's degree in soil science from the University of Reading, U.K.
Cassandra Swett joined UCCE on Jan. 2, 2017, as an assistant specialist in Cooperative Extension in the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis.
Prior to joining UCCE, Swett was an assistant professor and extension specialist at the University of Maryland, College Park, studying small fruit and grape diseases. Previously, Swett worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Doug Gubler, UCCE specialist in the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis.
Swett earned her B.S. in plant science from UC Santa Cruz, an M.S. in tropical plant pathology from the University of Hawaii, Manoa, and a Ph.D. in plant pathology from the Department of Plant Pathology at UC Davis.
Swett is located at 260 Hutchison Hall and can be reached at (530) 752-3377 and clswett@ucdavis.edu.
Stephanie Parreira joined UC IPM as a writer/editor on Feb. 13. Parreira will develop new and evaluate existing publications and products such as the "Pest Management Guidelines," year-round IPM programs, online tutorials, videos, identification cards, and other training materials. She will also assist UC IPM's urban and community IPM team with training courses about the principles of integrated pest management for UC Master Gardeners and other extenders of pest management information.
As a graduate student, Parreira sought to fill five major research gaps in honey bee pesticide toxicology: effects on whole colonies, effects on nurse bees (the youngest adult bees in a honey bee colony, which do not leave to collect pollen and nectar), effects of long-term exposure to field-realistic concentrations of pesticides, pesticide interactions, and effects of exposure through multiple routes (such as nectar and pollen). Outside of her research, she took many opportunities to speak to the public about current problems in bee health and what people can do to help bees thrive. She became especially interested in working in extension because of these experiences.
Parreira earned a B.A. in environmental studies and planning with a minor in biology from Sonoma State University in 2013, and earned an M.S. in horticulture with a focus in entomology from Oregon State University in 2016.
Parreira is located at the ANR building in Davis and can be reached at (530) 750-1391 and sparreira@ucanr.edu.
Michael Purnell joined the Statewide IPM Program on Feb. 2 as a programmer. He will be working on developing tools for the web that will enhance and add to the existing UC IPM products. Some of these tools include improving and upgrading the plant problem diagnostics tool, IPM decision support tool, bee precaution pesticide ratings, and herbicide symptoms photo repository.
Before joining UC IPM, Purnell was a project manager and technical lead for Intel Corporation in Folsom, CA where he and his team developed code and designed technical diagrams to integrate Intel's administrative systems with third party on-premise and cloud solutions.
Purnell earned his B.S. and M.S. in computer science at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University.
Purnell is based at the ANR building in Davis, with the IPM IT/Production team, and can be reached at (530) 750-1248 and mdpurnell@ucanr.edu.
UC ANR invites legislators to Ag Day at the Capitol
Ag Day at the Capitol was held in Sacramento on March 22. On Monday, March 20, Lucas Frerichs, Tyler Ash, Pam Kan-Rice and Meredith Turner of UC State Government Relations, visited the offices of all 120 legislators and the governor and lieutenant governor to invite them to visit the UC ANR booth at Ag Day. They handed out bags of UC-developed "Tango" mandarins, explaining that the seedless, easy-to-peel citrus variety is one of many California crops developed with UC ANR research.
We'll have more coverage of Ag Day at the Capitol in the next ANR Report.
To see Twitter coverage of Ag Day at the Capitol, look for the hashtags #CalAgDay and #growCAtogether.
FAQ on possible federal immigration enforcement actions on UC property
UC Office of the President has created a website for frequently asked questions on immigration enforcement actions.
Charles F. Robinson, UC general counsel and vice president of Legal Affairs, has issued the FAQ for members of the University of California community who are concerned about immigration enforcement actions occurring across the country and have asked about the possibility of enforcement actions occurring at UC. This document, published online at https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/content/frequently-asked-questions-federal-immigration-enforcement-actions, answers questions and provides information about how to respond in such a situation. Please keep in mind that Department of Homeland Security policies are in transition and this guidance will be updated as warranted.
A PDF version of the FAQ is available at https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/sites/default/files/frequently-asked-questions-federal-immigration-enforcement-uc.pdf
The FAQ on immigration is also the first link under “Resources” on UC's Immigration website https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/immigration.
Copyright workshop for academics, April 4
How can a law almost as old as our country work in today's high-tech universities? On April 4, UC ANR Office of Contracts and Grants will sponsor a workshop and webinar to provide academic basic information on copyright law and policies related to teaching and research, and how they affect typical needs of our university community. The workshop, which runs from 9 a.m. to noon, is intended to give academics a better sense of how copyrights work at UC ANR.
Workshop topics:
- What is copyright? How is it different from patents and trademarks?
- Who owns copyrights at UC ANR?
- How does one get a copyright?
- When and how can one use copyright-protected material belonging to someone else?
- If there is no money involved, does it really matter?
- How does the Internet affect copyright?
Presenter Jan Carmikle, Esq., has been a part of UC Davis since 1985 in a variety of roles. She is currently the senior intellectual property officer at UC Davis' InnovationAccess, a unit of the Office of Research with an emphasis on copyrights and material transfer agreements. She is also the UC Davis designated agent for the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Three ways to participate:
1. In person at the UC ANR Building in Davis: Click here to RSVP so we can plan for parking, seats and coffee.
2. Online at https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/861986107. Webinar ID: 861 986 107
3. By phone by dialing (408) 638-0968 or (646) 558-8656 (toll call)
For more information about the program, contact Kim Lamar, kdlamar@ucanr.edu or (530) 750-1305. For more information about logistics, contact Sherry Cooper, slcooper@ucanr.edu or (530) 750-1256.
What would you like to learn about climate science and outreach?
“To better understand climate-science training needs across UC Cooperative Extension and the Agricultural Experiment Station, we want to hear from colleagues across the family and consumer sciences, youth development, agriculture and natural resources disciplines,” said Leslie Roche, UCCE rangeland science and management specialist at UC Davis. “For example, if you lead programs on food, drought, pests, farmworker safety or environmental education, then climate science is relevant to you.”
“The survey includes questions about your interests and experiences in incorporating climate science and outreach into your research and extension programs,” Roche said. “We will use this information to guide future professional-development opportunities to better support UC ANR's research and extension work.”
The program team is also taking inventory of climate-related research and outreach being done by UC ANR so they would like to know about any research or outreach activities that are related to climate change.
The climate survey takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. This survey is anonymous and participation is voluntary. The program team plans to share the aggregate survey results.
To begin the survey, visit http://ucanr.edu/climatetrainingsurvey.
If you have any questions about the survey, contact Roche at lmroche@ucdavis.edu.
Roche is collaborating with Climate Change Program Team members Ted Grantham, UCCE climate and water specialist at UC Berkeley; Faith Kearns, academic coordinator for the California Institute for Water Resources; Susie Kocher, UCCE natural resources advisor in the Central Sierra Multi-County Partnership; and Tapan Pathak, UCCE specialist in Climate Adaption in Agriculture at UC Merced, to conduct the survey.
